


Past

by Lakritzwolf



Series: Flufftober 2018 [19]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, embarassing past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 14:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16348163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lakritzwolf/pseuds/Lakritzwolf
Summary: I think I felt the need to make up a reason why Magnus called Ragnor his 'cabbbage'. Also, Ragnor shouldn't have died so I fixed it.





	Past

The hour was late, several wine bottles stood empty, and the laughter sounded all the way through the apartment. 

“No, I will not, that memory is horrendous!”

Alec took a sip of his wine and looked back and forth between Catarina and Magnus, both grinning absolutely deviously, and Ragnor, who tried to look dignified but failed utterly.

“You see,” Catarina began conversationally and poured herself more wine. “That was back in... 1820 I think. Or was it 1822?” She looked questioningly at Magnus.  
“Goodness gracious,” Ragnor muttered and rolled his eyes.  
“1822,” Magnus said and took the offered bottle from Catarina to fill his own glass. “I will never forget that.”  
“I would rather, thank you very much,” Ragnor said with a huff.

While Magnus filled Alec’s glass the latter looked at Ragnor. 

“Oh please.” Ragnor sighed. “This is humiliating.”  
“Come on,” Catarina said and nudged him in the ribs. “I told you about the two Burmese guys and now it’s your turn.”  
“Well no one forced you to talk about the two Burmese young men!” 

Ragnor sighed again. “Oh very well. It was a stupid bet, and it was a lesson well learned,” he began. “We were in Moscow and there was this dancer, a beautiful young lady, and she... well, she was delightful.” Catarina giggled and he shot her a poisonous glare. “I made advances on her, and I have to stress that I was perfectly gentlemanly about it. And then Magnus, the little monster, bet me that I couldn’t woo her. And silly old fopdoodle that I was, I accepted.”

Alec got a sip of wine down the wrong way and Ragnor had to wait a bit for him to be able to breathe again. 

“And of course, the inevitable happened,” Ragnor went on. “She told me I was a sweet and handsome man, but that she was spoken for, and left me to be with her lover.”  
“Who was a woman,” Magnus interjected helpfully.  
“And so,” Ragnor went on, giving Magnus a death glare, “I lost the bet and had to eat nothing but goluptis for two whole, dreadful, horrible weeks.”

Magnus and Catarina snickered, but Alec just looked at them with a puzzled frown. 

“Golubtsi are a Russian delicacy,” Magnus explained.  
“Not when you have to eat them for two weeks they’re not,” Ragnor cut in.  
“And...” Alec looked at Ragnor who was pouting and Magnus who couldn’t stop giggling. “What are go.... golub...”  
“Golubtsi are kale wraps. Basically, cabbage leaves filled with whatever is at hand. Meat, carrots, onions, you get the drift.”  
“Cabbage,” Alec said slowly and looked back at Ragnor.

“Those were two very lonely weeks,” Ragnor said after pouring the contents of his glass down his throat. “Do you have any idea how lonely you are when you eat nothing but cabbage for two hellish weeks?”

Alec couldn’t help it, he had to join the laughter. 

Ragnor harrumphed and filled his glass again, but then he looked at Magnus with a devilish little smile. “And now, my dear friend, I believe it is your turn.”

Magnus’ smile vanished and he took a hasty gulp of wine.

“Oh dear,” Catarina said. “You didn’t think that we go and share our most embarrassing stories and let you off the hook? I don’t think so.”

Licking his lips Magnus looked at Alec who reclined into his chair while raising his eyebrows.

“Et tu?” He asked, trying to sound hurt.  
“You know I’m all for fairness.” Alec took a sip of wine.  
Catarina lifted her glass. “What about Shanghai?”  
“We do not talk about Shanghai.” Magnus thrust out a finger at her, something close to despair in his eyes. “We do not talk about Shanghai!” 

This time, it was Catarina and Ragnor who giggled.

“And what happened in Shanghai?” Alec asked innocently.  
“It’s in the past,” Magnus said firmly.  
“Only a couple hundred years,” Catarina said. “And a decade or two.”

Magnus stared into his wineglass. Alec nudged Magnus’ ankle with his foot.

“It... it involved an opium den,” Magnus eventually said, very grudgingly.  
“An opium den?” Alec’s eyebrows shot up.  
“I was...” Magnus cleared his throat. “I was experimenting.”  
“And it was a very extensive experiment,” Ragnor added smugly.

Catarina snorted, Ragnor daintily took a little sip of wine, and Magnus glared at his feet, a thunderstorm in his eyes.

“I don’t even know how long he was lost in there,” Ragnor said after a moment. “It must have been days.”  
“Three days,” Magnus said. He didn’t look at Alec, though. “And when I came to my clothes were gone.”

“But you...” Alec began after a pause. “You could have...” he went on, and ended with a weak imitation of Magnus’ flourished moves to summon his magic. 

Magnus gritted his teeth and dragged a hand down his face. “There goes my dignity,” he muttered. 

“The poor lad was still so stoned out of his mind,” Ragnor said and leaned forward, “that he couldn’t remember he could have just snapped his fingers to get dressed. Instead...”

“Instead?” Alec asked after a moment with morbid curiosity.

“I panicked,” Magnus said, his face still locked.  
“You... panicked...”  
Magnus huffed and closed his eyes, surrendering to his fate.“And fled.”  
“Without...” Alec hastily gulped down some wine. 

Catarina licked her lips and huffed out a little chuckle. “We found him slinking around the backstreets of Shanghai...”  
“...with a chicken,” Ragnor ended.  
“A chicken?” Alec’s expression was more than confused.  
“Yes,” Ragnor replied. “A very strategically positioned chicken. The poor creature must have been traumatised for life.”

Alec tried, very hard. But he failed, and a heavy snort escaped him despite his best efforts. Magnus looked up, and Alec tried to wipe the grin off his face, with moderate success.

“And might I add,” Ragnor began, “that I never ever started calling you silly nicknames involving fowl?” He crossed his legs. “I really could have, you know.”

Magnus emptied his glass, but before he could fill it, Alec laid his hand on Magnus’ arm. Magnus looked at him, but only very reluctantly. 

“Hey,” Alec said. “It’s in the past, as you said.”  
Magnus relaxed a little bit. “It’s not one of my favourite memories of that century.”  
“But... you got out of there alive. I think I would rather have killed myself instead of running out of an opium den completely naked.”  
“You, my dear Alexander,” Magnus replied gravely, “wouldn’t have ended up in a shady opium den in the first place.”  
“Probably not,” Alec replied with a soft smile. 

“You see?” Ragnor took another bottle and slowly pulled the cork out with his magic. “Now he knows your darkest secrets, the story with the opium den and the chicken, and that your father it a prince of hell. “He took glass. “And he still loves you.” Then Ragnor looked up after pouring. “That one’s not going to be scared away from you, old friend.”

Magnus rested his hand over Alec’s that still rested on his arm. 

“You won’t get rid of me that easily,” Alec confirmed with a soft smile. 

Catarina and Ragnor clinking their glasses together as if toasting each other on a job well done tore the two out of getting lost in each other’s eyes. Alec cleared his throat and Magnus busied himself with filling up their glasses. 

“And now,” Catarina drawled, “now it is your turn, Alec.”

Alec took a sip of wine and looked at each one of the warlocks. “I’m afraid I can’t really offer any interesting stories,” he said and shrugged. “One, I didn’t have several centuries to collect embarrassing incidents, and two...” He shrugged again. “My upbringing was a little... rigid. I didn’t even drink alcohol before I met Magnus.”

Two warlocks stared at him, and one took a sip of wine with a tiny little smile.

“So,” Alec went on with a sigh. “I’m afraid I don’t have any interesting stories to tell. I killed lots of demons, and once I made up a girlfriend so I didn’t have to admit to my family I wasn’t into girls.”  
“But there has to be something,” Catarina said. “Something out of the ordinary?”  
Alec shrugged and took a sip of wine, but then his eyes lit up. “Actually, there’s one thing.”

The other three leaned forward eagerly. 

“Yeah, so...” Alec pursed his lips for a moment. “There’s this story about how I crashed my own wedding.”

The room was filled with a greedy silence.

“You see, I wasn’t into girls, and I wasn’t out because the Clave is... really backward, but there was this woman I felt I had to marry for the sake of my family and of duty. But there was also this other guy...” He cast a look at Magnus. “A really handsome guy.”  
Magnus lifted his eyebrows. “Do I know him? Is he a threat to me?”  
Alec snorted under his breath. “He’s the most gorgeous man in history,” he went on. “But I thought I couldn’t have him, so I went through with the wedding until... well... I was just about to tie the knot and he storms in, standing there in the middle of the room, staring at me...” Alec took a sip of his wine. “And here I was, and I just walked away from the altar and kissed this guy in front of the Silent Brother, my would-have-been bride, my family, the entire Institute, and a handful of the highest ranking dignitaries from the Clave.”

Ragnor and Catarina stared at him with wide eyes. 

“Well,” Ragnor said after a moment. 

Magnus emptied his glass and gave Alec a stern look. “I hope he was worth it, Alexander.”  
Alec didn’t look at him at first and put his glass away as well, but there was a small smile on his lips when he did look up. “He was. He’s the best that ever happened to me.”  
Magnus leaned a little closer. “Really?” He asked softly.  
Alec leaned in as well. “Really,” he whispered against Magnus’ lips. 

A few moments later Ragnor cautiously got out of his chair and beckoned Catarina to follow him, and the two vanished quietly through a portal. 

Neither Alec nor Magnus noticed them leave.


End file.
